3 ms·

>But toward the end of March, TP sales plummeted because the supply just wasn’t there. TP was a result of people shifting from commercial toilet paper to home

>But toward the end of March, TP sales plummeted because the supply just wasn’t there. TP was a result of people shifting from commercial toilet paper to home toilet paper, and supply chains not keeping up. Not from panic buying, fwiw. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-toilet-paper-shortage-panic/2020/04/07/1fd30e92-75b5-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-toilet-p... (there are other better sources i'm sure)

lolinder 4y ago
That article doesn't say it was just the supply shift, it says it was a combination of factors including panic buying. And other, later sources put a larger share of the blame on panic buying [0]: > However, because grocery stores and other retailers usually only keep several weeks’ worth of toilet paper in their warehouses, the sudden increase in demand — largely fueled by panic-buying and hoarding — has quickly depleted stocks. > “Consumers are experiencing nervousness and they are buying more than they should, depleting inventories of an industry that is very lean,” Gonzalez said. “It will take a couple of weeks for people to understand they have enough, and the inventories will increase on the shelves.” Again, there are similarities to SVB. There were legitimate concerns about SVB's solvency that triggered a run. The same goes for toilet paper: there were a few legitimate hurdles which were made many times worse by panic buying. [0] https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2020/05/coronavirus-toilet-paper-shortage/ https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2020/05/coronavirus-toilet-paper-s...
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Ah yes, the classic "there can only be one cause" fallacy. Which is almost always wrong, especially in chaotic systems like the economy. It's just never that simple.

3 ms·

>But toward the end of March, TP sales plummeted because the supply just wasn’t there. TP was a result of people shifting from commercial toilet paper to home

by randall 4y ago

lolinder 4y ago
That article doesn't say it was just the supply shift, it says it was a combination of factors including panic buying. And other, later sources put a larger share of the blame on panic buying [0]: > However, because grocery stores and other retailers usually only keep several weeks’ worth of toilet paper in their warehouses, the sudden increase in demand — largely fueled by panic-buying and hoarding — has quickly depleted stocks. > “Consumers are experiencing nervousness and they are buying more than they should, depleting inventories of an industry that is very lean,” Gonzalez said. “It will take a couple of weeks for people to understand they have enough, and the inventories will increase on the shelves.” Again, there are similarities to SVB. There were legitimate concerns about SVB's solvency that triggered a run. The same goes for toilet paper: there were a few legitimate hurdles which were made many times worse by panic buying. [0] https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2020/05/coronavirus-toilet-paper-shortage/ https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2020/05/coronavirus-toilet-paper-s...
mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Ah yes, the classic "there can only be one cause" fallacy. Which is almost always wrong, especially in chaotic systems like the economy. It's just never that simple.